Tyson Foods President and Chief Executive Officer Donnie Smith rung the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday to mark the Arkansas-based company’s 15th anniversary of trading on the securities market. Some members of Tyson’s management team joined Smith as he rang the closing bell at 3:00 p.m.

Tyson Foods’ sales today are more than five times what they were in 1997, while the company’s overall employment has almost doubled, the company said. The company generated sales of $6.4 billion in fiscal year 1997 and employed 63,000 people. In fiscal 2011, officials say the company’s sales were $32.3 billion and total employment was 115,000.